Your Manners on IRC (Netiquette)

What is netiquette? Think of it as the IRC equivalent of saying 'please' when you want something - it's simply good manners. Unlike real life though, IRC users tend to take it a little more seriously and if you don't follow some simple rules - rules that may be very unclear to you when you begin using IRC - there's a good chance one or other of the ops will kick you! As it is, many of #GaySA's rules are devised around basic netiquette.

While it would be impossible to write a definitive list of netiquette rules - they're unspoken, and often change from server to server – but here are a few givens on #GaySA, and for most of the rest of the net, too:

1. SHOUTING! On IRC, if we want to yell, we IN ALL CAPS. You may have seen someone get kicked (or have been kicked yourself) for 'shouting', and that's all it means - the all capital letters are big and ugly and to most of us who have been around long enough, it actually 'sounds' like someone shouting. Now, just think: if someone asked you "HELLO, HOW ARE YOU?" in real life, how would you feel about it? The same applies for nicknames typed in ALL CAPS. Please avoid SHOUTING on IRC. The same applies to typing in bold - it has the same effect, i.e. it’s annoying! Please also avoid doing this.
2. ASL (age, sex, location, race) questions. While it may seem a convenient way to find out about someone, most people HATE getting ASLRed. Why? Well, different people have different reasons, here are some to consider:

1. No-one likes being reduced to a statistic.
2. Most people who are only interested in someone's age, sex, location and race, are probably looking for someone they can potentially flirt with - and it's a bit on the transparent side!
3. Most people who ask ASLR are probably 'Newbies' - and whilst we don't endorse newbie-discrimination, it does happen! So your best option if you want to get to know someone is probably to do it the long way - have a conversation with them.

Flooding. What's a flood? Well, whereas in real life, a flood is a large torrent of water, a flood on IRC is a large torrent of text. Often, it's the same text repeated over and over for effect, also respect the people chatting from cell phones, for example:

<Flooder> Hey! Any studs out there wanna chat to a hunky male?
<Flooder> Hey! Any studs out there wanna chat to a hunky male?
<Flooder> Hey! Any studs out there wanna chat to a hunky male?
<Flooder> Hey! Any studs out there wanna chat to a hunky male?

The likelihood is, if no-one responded the first time around, they won't respond the next time, or the next, or the next - however, after a while, they may well respond angrily. In a channel like #GaySA, flooding is very irritating to the other users, because there are many people trying to have legitimate conversations, and flooding interrupts their conversation and makes their screen a mess.

1. In ‘n’ out, in ‘n’ out. Please don’t repeatedly pop in and out the channel. Joining it for a few seconds every 4-5 minutes can be annoying for the people in the channel.
2. Lurking (also known as 'idling'). Different channels feel differently about lurking - sitting in a channel whilst not paying any attention to it - and in some it's okay, while in others it's strictly prohibited.
3. Swearing. It's as disdained on IRC as it is in real life. Of course, different channels have different rules about swearing, just as different people have different views in real life on it, but to be on the safe side, don't. Especially not if it's your first time in the channel!
4. Slaps! There are two very common 'slaps' on IRC - the first is mIRC's old:
   * this_oke slaps that_oke around a bit with a large trout
   The other is Pirch's:
   this_oke slams a 60 lb UNIX manual on that_oke's head. That’s gotta hurt... but then again... where there's no sense... there's no feeling!
   Whilst these may be hilarious the first few times one sees them, they soon wear thin - and most people tend to find them irritating eventually.
5. ASCII art. You've probably seen this around - it's a bunch of text, line-after-line of it that looks like a nice picture. Pretty though it is, it's also HIGHLY disruptive in a big channel like #GaySA - and in most channels, the full effect of it will be ruined anyway, because people will speak in between the lines of the text and break up it's continuity.
6. Excessive use of colour. You will no doubt soon discover how to type in colour, but please keep it to a minimum – maybe only a sentence or three in a session of chatting, if you really want to. But bear in mind, like typing in all caps, and in bold type, it shouts for attention and is generally just irritating to most other users.
7. Silly questions. They get silly answers: "Hey, anyone want to chat?" "No, we're here for the hang-gliding!" If you want people to chat to you, it's best to start making conversation in the main channel with people until others see you and think, "Ooh, that seems like an interesting person. Perhaps we can talk in private." In fact, if you ask if "anyone wants to chat" than most people are going to think quite the opposite!
8. Arbitrary and inane chat between two people in the main. Please consider people that chat from their cell phones in this regard and rather take it private as it clutters up their screen and they cannot follow the chat in the main properly.
9. And last but not least:
   Manners. This works the same as in real life. It's always a good policy to say 'thank you' and 'please' and 'you're welcome' to people when they deserve it. Courtesy will always go down well, in real life or on IRC, so use it whenever applicable and you'll find people respond to you much better!

Well, that's all for now, but there are of course many more bits and pieces of IRC subtleties that you'll pick up along the way. However, if you follow the simple rules above- and your common sense - you'll find your IRC experience a much more pleasurable one - as will those around you